Introduction to Quartz Frequency Standards

Abstract

The fundamentals of quartz frequency standards are reviewed. The subjects discussed include: crystal resonators and oscillators, oscillator types, and the characteristics arid limitations of temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXO) and oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXO). The oscillator instabilities discussed include: aging, noise, frequency vs. temperature, warmup, acceleration effects, magnetic field effects, atmospheric pressure effects, radiation effects, and interactions among the various effects. Guidelines are provided for oscillator comparison and selection. Discussions of specifications are also included, as are references and suggestions for further reading. Oscillator, clock, frequency standard, frequency control, frequency stability, time, timing devices, quartz, quartz crystal, quartz oscillator, atomic clock, atomic frequency standard, stability, aging, noise, phase noise.